Arkansas Blog

Trump backs nuclear weapon expansion

Donald Trump said Thursday on Twitter: "The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."

This continues, perhaps escalate, campaign rhetoric.

Scared yet of putting a reality show star in control of the nuclear button? The usual suspects — experts in the field — don't have much good to say.

Experts from nonpartisan organizations opposed to the spread of nuclear weapons told Business Insider in March that Trump's position on nukes would be dangerous.

Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, explained why nuclear proliferation would be a "total catastrophe" for the US and its allies abroad.

The mix of aggression, ignorance and simple stupidity here is legitimately terrifying.

The sane, fact-based world is appalled.

On the other hand, this is surely yet another topic on which Sen. Tom Cotton would like to cheer the new president. He might even say Mother Jones' apocalyptic vision is precisely the point:

In just seven weeks, a man known for being ill-tempered, thin-skinned, narcissistic, and erratic will take control of the US nuclear arsenal. Donald Trump will have the authority and power to launch any combination of the country's 4,500 nuclear weapons. At any time and for any reason he deems fit, Trump could destroy a nation and, through miscalculation, the world.

UPDATE: Did I call it or did I call it?

Trump's pronouncement followed a similar call for nuclear escalation by his pal Vladimir Putin. Feel like old times yet?